Melissa Etheridge and Linda Wallem are having a great day! The couple announced their engagement Wednesday after the Supreme Court ruled against the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, which secures federal benefits for gay married couples and cleared ...

TV Guide

Melissa Etheridge and Linda Wallem are having a great day! The couple announced their engagement Wednesday after the Supreme Court ruled against the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, which secures federal benefits for gay married couples and cleared the way for same-sex marriages in California.

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"I look forward to exercising my American civil liberties," Etheridge tweeted. "And getting fully and completely and legally married this year to my true love of over three years, Linda Wallem."

Etheridge has been dating Wallem, a TV producer (Nurse Jackie, Whitney), since 2010, when she separated from former partner Tammy Lynn Michaels.

Celebrities react to the DOMA ruling

"Lets hear it for the general progress of the human mind. With a beautiful sweep of sweet justice's blind hand we move forward," Etheridge said. "We correct the laws made hastily out of fear."

"It is about family and I love my four kids," in a phone interview with CNN, E! News reports. "I called my now fiancée. I'm looking forward to marrying my partner of three years we've been together. I'm going to get married in the state of California. I woke [the kids] up this morning telling them the Supreme Court ruling on DOMA...I love everybody out there. It's a great day."

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